Samsung Galaxy S II vs. HTC Amaze 4G Comparison

T-Mobile has created quite a delicious dilemma this fall: they've launched two flagship Android phones with nearly identical specs and similar prices. The HTC Amaze 4G sells for $259 with contract and the Samsung Galaxy S II sells for $229. Both phones launched on October 12, and they use the same 1.5GHz dual core Snapdragon CPU, have 16 gigs of storage and 8 megapixel cameras.

The similarities don't end there. They both have NFC, a front video chat camera, 42Mbps HSPA+ 4G (they're the first T-Mobile phones to offer 42Mbps), big displays and the usual WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. Each phone can shoot 1080p video and can act as a mobile hotspot to share that fast data connection.

The HTC Amaze 4G is the latest realization of HTC's boutique phone aspirations. We don't mean that in a negative way. They've learned from Apple that a high quality design and high end materials are important, and the Amaze truly has a beautiful industrial design with pleasing metal accents. The Galaxy S II is the usual Samsung thing: a big black slab o' glass and a plastic back.

In our tests, camera quality is similar, though HTC uses a backside illuminated sensor with a fast F/2.2 lens and HDR. In the end, they both take very good photos, and I actually like the Galaxy S II's low light shots a bit better. The Amaze 4G has a slight edge for 1080p video quality, though the Samsung records more pleasing audio tracks.

In strong signal areas, both phones pull in similar signals, but we noted that the Galaxy S II on T-Mobile got a weaker signal than the HTC Amaze 4G in weaker coverage areas on 4G.

In the end, it comes down to which design you prefer, and whether you're an HTC Sense person or a Samsung TouchWiz person.